Browsing by Subject "group success"

Friendship can be defined as long-term social bonds between non-kin, characterized by mutual affection and support. Friendship is often studied in dyadic interactions or in ego-networks, but less is known about the group level processes of friendship. This thesis investigates factors related to maintenance of adult friendships over longer periods of time, using real-life, retrospective data of friendship groups formed during the study years and maintained well into adulthood. Based on group research in cognitive and social psychology and evolutionary theories on friendship and cooperation, I am especially interested in the effect of group size and group bonding on group success, as well as the role of possible gender differences. Using data from the Fraternity Friendship Study (N = 284), collected from fraternity alumni members, I investigate factors that help adult friendship groups succeed over time. The friendship groups were between 5 and 18 members in size and were formed 12-24 years ago. The survey data regard aspects of fraternity activities and friendship groups both at the time of studies and at present. Group success is measured as group bonding (the Inclusion-of-Other-in-Self or IOS scale), reflecting the members’ emotional closeness towards the group, and meeting frequency. Qualitative aspects of group functioning are also examined. Results show that group success was related to group size at the time of group formation, as well as with qualitative aspects of the group, such as information flow, perceived homophily, and perceived attractiveness of the friends in the group. Group bonding moderated the effect of group size on meeting frequency, so that smaller groups benefitted more of bonding. Group bonding was also itself an important factor for how active the groups remained over the years. Group success did not differ between male and female friendship groups: bonding, meeting frequency, and group size did not vary by gender. However, group size had a slightly larger effect for the maintenance of female friendships, compared to male groups: especially small female groups were more likely to lose contact. Overall, a group size of approximately 10 members or more, roughly corresponding to sympathy group in the layered social network model, was found to be beneficial for group success.